A compact, low jitter, high voltage trigger generator based on fractional-turn ratio saturable pulse transformer and its application

In this paper, an all-solid-state high voltage trigger generator is developed, which is aimed at triggering a several gigawatts three-electrode spark gap of an intense electron beam accelerator (IEBA). As one of the most important parts for triggering the IEBA precisely, it is developed based on a fractional-turn ratio saturable pulse transformer and a compact six-stage Marx generator. A pulse of rising time 141 ns and amplitude 79.6 kV is obtained on the 1000 Omega dummy load. The trigger is operated at pulsed repetition frequency over 10 Hz for testing its operational stability. The jitter counted from the initial control signal to the falling edge of the pulse is 0.64 ns. In addition, experiments of three-minute continuous repetitive operations at 10 Hz and higher frequency are carried out. The results show that the trigger generator has high stability even in long-time operations. So far, it successfully applies to the main switch of IEBA with a breakdown voltage of over 500 kV, and a total system jitter of 6.7 ns is acquired. Published under an exclusive license by AIP Publishing.